The Ultimate Heir: too wise to convince (review)
Banking on the star power of Texan Glen Powell, American John Patton Ford tries, for his second film, to dust off a British classic. The effort is noticed, the target missed.
Glen Powell will he ever tire of returning to the past? No deadly tornadoes (Twisters), aerial loops (Top Gun: Maverick) or highly publicized suicide missions (The Running Man), but the modern rewriting of an English satire by Robert Hamer, Noblesse oblige (1949). Basically, the plot remains the same: the product of a natural pregnancy decides to revise his place in the order of succession of a wealthy family by eliminating, with disconcerting ease, any relative who would be between him and the jackpot.
In form, however, we innovate. No more fantasy which made a somewhat forgotten film original: the interpretation, by a single Alec Guinness, of the eight victims of parricide. Today, the names are jostling in the credits: Ed Harris (who looks… Ed Harris), Zach Woods or even Topher Grace as tortured victims, Margaret Qualley (perhaps the most convincing of the lot) as a ridiculously venal femme fatale and Jessica Henwick as a naive fiancée.
The casting reflects the production: dressed to the nines. Forgotten, the hand-held shots, the urgency and the darkness of Emily, criminal in spite of herself (2022), first feature film by director John Patton Ford. Instead, a polished, academic production. What remains is his obsession with money and its effects, in a film conceived as a distanced, ironic commentary on an economy based on inequality of opportunity. “Money buys happiness”, “Being rich is even better than you think”, says, mockingly, the criminal committed to the capitalist cause from his prison cell. For the bite, we’ll come back. For the credibility of Glen Powell whose flashy smile is not enough to work miracles here, too.
By John Patton Ford. With Glen Powell, Margaret Qualley, Jessica Henwick… Duration: 1h45. Released March 25, 2026
